Sunday, January 29, 2012

President Obama to Answer Top-Voted YouTube Questions on Monday
WASHINGTON, DC -- A question advocating marijuana legalization from a retired LAPD deputy chief of police won twice as many votes as any other video question in the White House's "Your Interview with the President" competition on YouTube this weekend. President Obama is slated to answer some of the top-voted questions on Monday.

The marijuana question, submitted by Stephen Downing, a board member for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), is as follows: "Mr. President, my name is Stephen Downing, and I'm a retired deputy chief of police from the Los Angeles Police Department. From my 20 years of experience I have come to see our country’s drug policies as a failure and a complete waste of criminal justice resources. According to the Gallup Poll, the number of Americans who support legalizing and regulating marijuana now outnumbers those who support continuing prohibition. What do you say to this growing voter constituency that wants more changes to drug policy than you have delivered in your first term?" The question can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0IpiATxdR4.

Downing's question came in first place for video questions and ranked second out of all questions (with the overall top spot going to a text question about copyright infringement). Many of the other top-ranking questions are about marijuana policy or the failed "war on drugs," as has been the case every other time the White House has invited citizens to submit and vote on questions via the web. For example, in last year's "Your Interview with the President" competition, another LEAP member's question came in first place overall, prompting President Obama to reply that drug legalization is "an entirely legitimate topic for debate." That exchange can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bB7AK76TF-k.

Voting in the YouTube contest wrapped up Saturday at midnight EST. In addition to the top-voted marijuana and drug policy questions mentioned above, there were a number of other similar questions that received thousands of votes but were mysteriously deleted after being marked "inappropriate."

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) represents police, prosecutors, judges, FBI/DEA agents and others who want to legalize and regulate drugs after fighting on the front lines of the war on drugs and learning firsthand that prohibition only serves to worsen addiction and violence. More info at http://www.CopsSayLegalizeDrugs.com.

25 comments:

My question is to the Leap police whom do not want to enforce laws on Marijuana anymore. It is happening all over. The President and the CIA now have Academi (Blackwater) poised to do all the Swat team raiding that many Police are refusing to do. Are the Police ready to protect and serve our Cannabis population? That is what is going on ya know. The President has been raging war on Cannabis consumers and tie marijuana with Mexican Drug Cartels problems together. Labeling us as terrorist. Will Local Policemen keep Academi, and other highly paid private Army's..from putting peace loving individuals in their privately owned prisons?

The idea is to bring awareness to the general public and use political pressure to change the laws. Then there would be no need to have police or their Brown Shirt standins to raid and arrest anyone. As the polls showed, 50% of Americans favor legalization vs 46% who favor continued prohibition. Considering the tens of billion used to prop up drug laws and public opinion, imagine if the issue was debated and reported on a level playing field. Why the President went back on his word should be explained.Mr President, this quotation is for you: I'm not upset that you lied to me, I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you. Friedrich Nietzsche

Are you a Cop? A LEAP Officer? My question was stimulate the minds of the Police who may read my comment ..., so you went and tried to undermine my comments by redirecting the question to make a point.Making awareness to the general public and use political pressure to change the laws is my middel name.(therealjamebud channel@ Youtube). Your information is way off...it's currently over 70% in favor of total legalization. If your going to blog then please for the love of humanity, do it about something you know about.Like Quotes from Friedrich Nietzsche. He wrote critical texts on religion, morality, contemporary culture, philosophy and science, displaying a fondness for metaphor, irony and aphorism. ; )

Here's a cite to verify that my numbers were correct. http://www.gallup.com/poll/150149/Record-High-Americans-Favor-Legalizing-Marijuana.aspx From the article, cited. A Gallup survey last year found that 70% favored making it legal for doctors to prescribe marijuana in order to reduce pain and suffering. NYPD retiredIn this instance, the quote was most appropriate.

Nothing appropriate in sticking your nose where it don't belong. I said 70% you said 50 %. I asked serious questions and was hoping to hear a reply from some intelligent policemen. But instead I get you trying to bully my post. Be a Bully on someones else's post.I should be able to post an opinion without some blow-hole spewing crap all over my personal thoughts. Seriously get a grip.Brian McCullough

I want to know how he can justify classification of a plant with schedule one drugs still. You don't go to rehab because you use cannabis to relax your muscles, reduce your pain or nausea, relieve a migraine, induce sleep, or decrease your anxiety/depression. You go to rehab for crack, heroin, even alcohol ... And thats legal. This is a civil rights issue. And by the way, Barrack, my attitude about seat belts hadn't changed, I'm still pissed off that I can be issued a fine for making my own decisions, I'm grown, government should mind their business on that one too. No one utas getting out of here alive and if cannabis can improve your quality of life them I say to each his own. Stop with the bullying!

Very poor and disappointing answer from Obama. It had almost no depth of thought and appears to be scripted from memory, without insight into the real problems and does not even consider the marijuana arguments which include federal raids on legal medical marijuana state laws, sole legalization and responsible usage. Certaintly the lessor of two evils if you include the GOP, but also without serious consideration.

Marijuana users stand apart from other drugs. The lack of negative human health effects, and on the contrary, the multiple medical benefits based on extensive research over many years far exceed the pharmaceutical anti-depressants daily advertised, which are harmful narcotics having harmful and sometimes fatal effects. The president is either oblivious or has friends in the pharmaceutical companies.

I hope you all can now finally see that we need a new president that will handle this issue, along with many other issues we face in our country today. The new president I speak of is, of course, Dr. Ron Paul.

Drug legalization is one of the few areas where Ron Paul's ideology is fully realizable. Even then, marijuana is the easy case. Simply legalizing all drugs could have some serious unintended consequences. Unfortunately, Ron Paul's ideological blindness leads to the realization that he would be a trainwreck of a president and we will all be better off if he stays in the Senate. Take some inspiration from him, then come back to the real world and formulate reasonable solutions to the difficult and complex problems we face in this country.

While I sincerely appreciate the efforts of LEAP, I believe we are losing the "War of Words" regarding the issue of CANNABIS legalization by not being absolutely precise in our language. We must stop using the government/prohibitionist-created phrase "The War on Drugs". CANNABIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH DRUGS OR PHARMACEUTICALS!!!! Stop losing the debate by constantly referring to "DRUGS" when we mean cannabis. Listen to both leap officers questions and see exactly how we lose the debate in just asking the question in that way. Because when we say drugs as opposed to cannabis we lump it in with heroin, crack, cocaine, and meth. End of conversation! No one listens after they here the word drugs instead of cannabis. Obama's response had nothing to do with cannabis and everything to do with heroin, cocaine and meth.

LEAP is an organization against prohibition, not against one substance's prohibition. Cannabis is but one aspect of the drug war, and like it or not, it is considered a drug, period. NORML is a better choice if you are looking for a cannabis-focused group.

But LEAP is the better choice if you are looking to completely end the harassment, whittle down the systemic corruption and lies, stop the horrific needless and budget busting wars in foreign lands, etc…

I agree with you Nerdmaster that nypaulie seems better suited for NORML at this point, but I would suggest nypaulie direct a tiny fraction of his/her energies into looking into the issue of government labeled War on Drugs.

So while I appreciate and agree with your advice he check out NORML, I would also ask nypaulie to do some reading and video watching over at http://LEAP.cc.

How disappointing was Obama's comments!!! Makes me glad I didn't vote for him. Cannibis is a natural plant and should not be lumped in with horein, cocaine, etc that are artifically produced (like all those pills the pharmacy pushers advertise on TV). It's all a conspiracy between the drug companies, cotton industries, prison systems, etc so that their fat cats can get even fatter. I applaud LEAP and NORML for their efforts in trying to give our freedom back to us. Everyone should be able to grow their own plants and smoke at will without the fear of big brother coming to take you away. So toke on that awhile all you hypocrits who suck down gallons of alcohol and so-called legal pills.

Do they ever think that if they taxed cannibis at around $50 an Oz that they would return anywhere from 3,500,000,000 to around 7,500,000,000 based on it being legal, and a 1/4 to 1/2 america's population using up to an Oz a month .... this excess money could be used for the police force and health organistions to help with hard drug problems. In Australia where I'm from that would be around 250,000,000 to around 500,000,000... Of course not all people would use an Oz a month but heavy uses would soon make up for that in the number crunch. So instead of costing 1,000,000,000,000 over 40year to fight drugs it would cost roughly 300,000,000,000 less and probably a lot less because of the jobs legalizing Cannibis would create. Hence less pay out for welfare,etc

Legalization maybe a temporary monitored solution, until it is a policiation's child that overdoses in a LEAP lab. But violence will not end in Mexico over it. Don't let they hype full you. The United States has gone to war over smaller issues to obtain territory for political gain. The cocaine and heroine trade is no different.

Pharmaceutical companies have always been the innovators of "quick fixes," that eliminate addiction (and create another one).

The underground market in America will not go away either. There are still bootleggers in the States who buy highjacked bottles of Bud at cost from the creative minds of the drug addict (lab rat).

This from the Administration that has a Patent on Cannibinoids for medical use? That's right, Health and Human Resources actually have the Patent, not the application... Talking out the other side of your mouth between your legs Nobama.